Commentary»Tiger, tiger, burning bright / In the forests of the night« read the first lines of the poem ›The Tiger‹ by William Blake (1794). This poem from Romanticism appears contrary to the cool, sober sculpture Blake’s Burn by Roni Horn. However, the works of the artist not only carry forth the formal aspects of Minimal Art; they also thematically explore the poetic relations between the object and its beholder. The word »tiger«, glaring in color and embedded in a massive block of aluminum, virtually jumps out at the reader. Evident here is the contrast between the signifying word and the abstract object, between the wild animal and the industrially manufactured block. In her sculptures, Roni Horn is frequently concerned with such poetic ways of irritating the beholder’s interpretation. Or, as Blake asked, »What immortal hand or eye / Could frame thy fearful symmetry?«

»Tiger, tiger, burning bright / In the forests of the night« read the first lines of the poem ›The Tiger‹ by William Blake (1794). This poem from Romanticism appears contrary to the cool, sober sculpture Blake’s Burn by Roni Horn. However, the works of the artist not only carry forth the formal aspects of Minimal Art; they also thematically explore the poetic relations between the object and its beholder. The word »tiger«, glaring in color and embedded in a massive block of aluminum, virtually jumps out at the reader. Evident here is the contrast between the signifying word and the abstract object, between the wild animal and the industrially manufactured block. In her sculptures, Roni Horn is frequently concerned with such poetic ways of irritating the beholder’s interpretation. Or, as Blake asked, »What immortal hand or eye / Could frame thy fearful symmetry?«